Sonnet 18 Reflection

This sonnet provides a rather interesting shift from the idea of preserving beauty by living forever through a family line to living forever through Shakespeare’s poetry. Shakespeare spends a ton of time in this sonnet by complimenting the young man and comparing him to a summer’s day. This is peculiar, as he does not once mention that the young man should start a family. It seems like this would be the shift away from this idea of family and into Shakespeare’s adoration and love for Mr. WH. It is also interesting to see how this almost relates to an Italian sonnet in that Shakespeare focuses on love (in what I’d consider a rather cheesy way). When I was younger and read this, I had actually thought that this was a sonnet to a woman Shakespeare must have loved. This is why it really stands out to me amongst the others.